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#2 "I know nothing of philosophical philanthropy. But I know what I have seen, and what I have looked in the face in this world here, where I find myself. And I tell you this, my friend, that there are people (men and women both, unfortunately) who have no good in them--none. That there are people whom it is necessary to detest without compromise. That there are people who must be dealt with as enemies of the human race. That there are people who have no human heart, and who must be crushed like savage beasts and cleared out of the way."

We live in an age where armchair philosophers are tripping over themselves to put forth proclamations of their own ability to do what no human ever has. Fukuyama's "end of history". Jared Diamond's "geographic determinism" and the idea that now that Western technologies are widespread we'll all be exactly the same despite cultural difference, so no more war.

Most recently, Pinker's preposterous claims that due to socialism and technology humans have become inherently less violent and that time tried observations about tension building and releasing (WWII? Aab Spring?) over the decades and generations are simply not true.

Wrong, each one of them. Human nature doesn't turn on a dime and forces of politics don't simply stop, no matter how much we wish it is so. Culture, not ease of food acquisition or lack of need to obtain necessities for a few decades, determines how a group of people will behave and how their interactions wth other nations will succeed or fail, absent some black swan event. Even regimes that believed otherwise and had mass quantities of military force couldn't make these work for more than a couple generations.

#5 Sometimes I marvel at the wisdom and insight shown here, and the depth of understanding of macro-trends and principles, as evidence here by Dr. Hanson and the comments above. Thank you Rantburgers for what you offer.

#7 Lots of us agreed with nation building, Ebbavitle Unaith6504, whether because they thought the society could've been changed after the defeat, or because they saw it as an excuse to keep armed troops where the killing needed to happen.

Mr. Hanson is a tenured history professor, which makes him a historian. His area of expertise is the Classical Period of Greece and Rome, with a concentration in the wars of the period. However, whether he is a self-important gasbag is legitimately a matter of opinion.